Of the books maligned in the "debate", Hunger Games is by far the least deserving; neither the themes nor the treatment nor the quality of the writing are juvenile. The movie is very good, with excellent acting and a haunting soundtrack--but the books are better still.

Ms Collins followed the old Heinlein "formula" perfectly: make the protagonist 17 and write the book as normal. Both for Heinlein and Collins "normal" is very good. And the Hunger Games trio does more than just hang with Heinlein's juveniles; it hangs with his best.

They are very dark reads and by no stretch of the imagination are they kid stuff. Except, perhaps, in the absence of the vulgarity and gratuitous sex and violence that decorates a lot of so-called adult material.